Leaft Foods, a food-tech start-up based in New Zealand, has debuted a new plant-based performance nutrition drink, Leaft Blade, made with protein from green leaves.

The product’s key ingredient is rubisco – an abundant protein present in every green leaf, which Leaft has now been able to successfully extract at commercial scale. Historically, the company said this has been a huge challenge for food scientists to do without destroying Rubisco’s delicate structure and unique functional properties.

Each 100ml serving of Leaft Blade contains 17g of leaf rubisco protein which is said to outperform whey in amino acid profile, digestibility and functionality while generating 97% lower carbon emissions. The enzyme protein digests faster than other proteins and offers a complete amino acid profile, unlike some other plant-based varieties.

The protein is extracted from 50,000 green leaves per serving of Leaft Blade, engineered for ‘rapid nutrition precisely when your body and brain need it’. The product also contains l-tyrosine to support brain function, leucine for muscle growth, and tryptophan to restore balance.

It is designed to be taken before or during exercise, with early adopters – including professional athletes – taking it 20 minutes before workout sessions. Leaft said this has enabled them to experience how it delivers key amino acids ‘up to six times faster than traditional proteins…at the peak of the anabolic window or in critical moments requiring intense focus and clarity’.

The company moved into a 30,000-square-foot commercial facility last year, producing one tonne of products per week. Leaft Blade is its first consumer offering, with Leaft already selling commercial-grade ingredients to B2B customers.

Leaft Blade is now available, initially online, to New Zealand and US consumers.